The devil has no authority—no legal right—to dominate you as a born again Child of God. Each and every member of the Body of Christ has a perfect right to experience all the blessings of redemption, including healing and deliverance from any Satanic oppression. The Name of Jesus is the key—what do you do with the Name of Jesus?
The Scripture says in the Gospel of Luke, “After Satan tempted Jesus, he left Him for a season” (Luke 4:13).
Notice it didn’t say, “Satan left Him and never came back.” It said, “He left Him for a season.” Yet later on, it said that Jesus “. . . was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15).
That’s the reason we have in Jesus such a faithful and compassionate High Priest to help us (see vv. 15–16). He understands what we’re going through. And we have a right to use His Name when we experience adversity!
So if pain comes, if sickness or disease comes, instead of accepting it and telling somebody, “I have this, that, and the other thing,” you say, “In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, leave my body.” And the pain or the sickness or disease must go.
I said it must go, because you are the master of your body, not me or anybody else. I am the caretaker of my own body.
Your born again spirit indwells the Holy Spirit that lives in you, your body. Your regenerated Soul will live forever because Christ dwells in you.
And you by the Power of the Holy Spirit are to rule your body.
But that’s where some get into trouble; they don’t rule their bodies.
The Apostle Paul said about himself (and he admonished believers to do the same), “. . . .I keep my body under, and bring it into subjection . . .” (1 Cor. 9:27). In other words, Paul was saying, “I rule my body.”
A failure to rule the body produces (carnal, the old nature) in us. One translations calls them “body–ruled” Christians. In other words, their bodies rule them.
Some don’t get this because either a failure to know God’s Word or just would rather live in the old nature and not the new. You are called to rule your body. Paul said, “I keep under my body. I bring it into subjection.” Paul was talking about his spirit, the real man, or the inner or hidden man (1 Peter 3:4).
Somebody said, “Yeah, but that was Paul. He was an apostle, so he could do that.”
Now isn’t that illogical reasoning? Just because Paul was called to the office of the apostle didn’t make him any more a Christian than you or me or anyone else.
Paul wasn’t any more saved than any member of the Body of Christ.
The office Paul stood in didn’t give him any more authority to rule his body than you have authority to rule your body. And it didn’t give him any more power to do it, either.
I will further prove to you from the Bible that all Christians, not just a select few, can rule their bodies.
ROMANS 12:11 I [Paul] beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Now, Paul wrote the letter, of Romans to believers. He addresses the letter, “To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called saints . . .” (Rom. 1:7). Well, “saints” still applies to people everywhere who are born again—“to all that be born again in” the Inland Empire, the United States of America, or wherever you’re from!
Well, what did Paul say that saints should do with their bodies? He said, “I request you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that You present your bodies . . .” (Rom. 12:1). So you see, you are to do something with your own body. This verse proves that you can do it.
You are the overseer of your body. If you weren’t, you couldn’t present it to God. You wouldn’t be able to do anything with it. But you are the master, the ruler, of your body. And thank God, you have a right to freedom pain and sickness and disease in the Name of Jesus!
You can command those things to leave your body in that Name, and they must go. But notice who has to do the commanding—you do!
Sometimes you—the real you, your spirit being—just have to assert yourself. And you must take advantage of your rights and privileges in Christ, including your right to use His Name.
We have a pretty plant my wife planted by the front door of the church. It has such beautiful one with purple flowers. But, a lot of the kids at church would step on the plant and also pick the flowers until the plant was nearly destroyed. Something had to be done- a fence was placed in front of the area with a sign posted; “Please keep out of the planters”.
As the overseer of the church grounds for the flowers to remain in perfect form a fence and sign had to be put up! A guard! In the same way I—the man on the inside—am the overseer of this building of mine, my body. You also are the overseer or caretaker of your body.
You and I must simply put up a sign and a fence around our body in the spirit realm. Keep away from my body, soul and spirit! “Devil, this means you! Don’t you trespass on God’s property!”
Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation or creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” That new creature is the man on the inside, the Spirit man. And you, as that new creature are the caretaker of your body, the overseer of your house.
You are the caretaker of your body, but, really, your body doesn’t belong to you; it belongs to God.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:19–20
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own [well, whose are you if you’re not your own]?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
As a new creature in Christ, you and the Father are one. As I’ve said many times, concerning John 14:13–14, when you use the Name of Jesus to exercise spiritual authority, you’re not demanding anything of God the Father. You and the Father are one, and He has given you authority in that Name over demonic forces.
Directly or indirectly, sickness and disease come from the devil; they don’t come from God. So when you command sickness and disease to leave your body in Jesus’ Name, you’re just taking your place and demanding your rights. You’re exercising the authority that God gave you and commissioned you to exercise. And you’re acting scripturally as the caretaker of your own body.
Love in His Grace, Pastor Joe
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